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Natural disaster planning for your business

How Can You Create A Business Natural Disaster Plan?

As a business owner, you know there are challenges you can anticipate and others that hit with little or no warning. Don't let a natural disaster catch you unprepared.

Here are some disaster preparedness steps you can take to protect your employees, secure your assets, and get your business back up and running in the event of a natural disaster:

Protect your employees against the unexpected with these disaster preparedness steps.

The safety of all onsite employees and visitors should be your first priority:

Take time to plan evacuation routes and exits from your facility and mark them.

Install proper emergency lighting and exit signs to help show the way in case of power failure.

Designate staff "safety wardens" to guide and assist any emergency efforts, including regular drills. Businesses should conduct emergency training exercises with all employees as frequently as needed to reinforce proper reaction times and responses.

Identify appropriate shelter spaces, such as a basement or storm cellar, in your facility for emergencies that may require them. If there is no basement in your building, go to the center of a small interior room on the lowest level away from windows or outside walls, such as a closet or interior hallway. Make sure spaces are kept clear of items that would limit their capacity or safety.

Secure your assets with a business natural disaster plan.

Effective disaster preparedness means protecting your critical business assets. These may include your facilities, equipment, software, and data. Depending on where you're located, there may be measures you can take to shore up your facility against natural disasters:

Contact a qualified contractor to discuss risk mitigation construction techniques for your building or office.

As an added precaution, you may also want to research places where you could temporarily relocate your operations if disaster strikes.

Maintain a comprehensive, up-to-date inventory of the items and equipment used in your business. Consider capturing these assets in photographs or video and securing the images and inventory files offsite.

Institute regular backup procedures for critical software and data to help ensure your business maintains access to the digital infrastructure it needs.

A business natural disaster plan will help get you up and running.

Following the disaster, you'll want to resume business as quickly as possible:

Keep a name and telephone number list of contractors or repair firms who could make emergency temporary repairs or board up windows should some of your buildings be damaged.

Maintain a list of key suppliers, creditors, customers, and employees you need to contact about the state of your operation.

Work with a local advisor, such as your State Farm® agent, to create a disaster and recovery plan that works best for your particular business.

State Farm® (including State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates) is not responsible for, and does not endorse or approve, either implicitly or explicitly, the content of any third party sites hyperlinked from this page. State Farm has no discretion to alter, update, or control the content on the hyperlinked, third party site. Access to third party sites is at the user's own risk, is being provided for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation to buy or sell any of the products which may be referenced on such third party sites.

The information in this article was obtained from various sources not associated with State Farm®. While we believe it to be reliable and accurate, we do not warrant the accuracy or reliability of the information. These suggestions are not a complete list of every loss control measure. The information is not intended to replace manuals or instructions provided by the manufacturer or the advice of a qualified professional. Nor is it intended to effect coverage under our policy. State Farm makes no guarantees of results from use of this information.